Language Translation Added to Google Goggles (v1.1)

The latest version of Google Goggles (1.1) is out and it brings the wonderful translation feature that was demonstrated back at Mobile World Congress. With Goggles, users can now take a picture of a word or phrase and have it translated on the fly. Check out the video below for more on how it works.

As of right now, Google Goggles can read English, French, Italian, German and Spanish. However, it will translate to many other languages. Naturally, Google is hard at work, adding support for more languages. Long term, they’d even like to translate non-Latin (Chinese, Hindi and Arabic) text!

Other features found in the 1.1 update include improved barcode recognition, a refreshed user interface, and recognition of more logos and products. Goggles also supports a larger corpus of artwork, likely as a result of their PlinkArt acquisition. Oh, it’s also now possible to initiate a search from images already found in your phone!

80 Comments

I know it is trendy to cater everything to mainland china, but I'm sure the Android market is bigger in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Just used it to translate a little bit of Deutsch and it worked splendidly. OCR is what Google Goggles seems to do anyway. I tried Snapit on Anroid for OCR, and the result is much better. I would seriously love to see ancient languages included in this feature! Imagine being able to actually read the writing on the walls of the pyramids! Historical tourism couldn't get any better than that.

it would have been awesome for this to work for chinese and japonese as well, now I use this really cool iphone app that translates chinese and japonese on the spot you can check out lucsens.com or app store